The Best Cities For Female Entrepreneurs

October is Women's Small Business Month, and with that in mind, personal finance site NerdWallet took a look at the metropolitan areas providing the greatest opportunities for female entrepreneurs.

Female entrepreneurship has been on an upward climb over the past several years. In fact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, "U.S. business ownership rose 27.5% for women, and overall, America added one million net, new businesses from 2007 to 2012, a period in which U.S. employment fell by 3.8 million."

To determine this list, personal finance site NerdWallet looked at indicators of a metro area's business climate, including the average revenue per business of women-owned businesses, the percentage of women-owned businesses per 100 residents, and the percentage of women-owned businesses with employees.

They also considered local economic factors such as unemployment rate, median annual income for women, and median annual income for women as compared with men. Finally, NerdWallet considered the number of Small Business Administration-guaranteed loans per 100,000 residents and the average size of those loans.

Data for the study was taken from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Business Owners and American Community Survey, as well as the Small Business Administration.

What factors contributed most strongly to creating a "friendly" environment for female entrepreneurs? A thriving business climate and a high-concentration of female-owned businesses provide a healthy start.

"Obviously it’s good to have a business climate in general that’s conducive to opening a small business," said Kamran Rosen, senior marketing analyst at NerdWallet. "It’s definitely a combination of 'where are small businesses thriving' and then within that, 'where do women own a lot of small businesses?'"

At the top of the list is Boulder, Colorado, with the most women-owned small businesses per 100--4.42--and the most SBA-guaranteed loans per 100,000 residents-- 41.17--of any city on the list. The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut metro area came in second, with the highest average SBA-guaranteed loans at $1,654,405 and the second-highest median annual income for women, $57,377.

"A lot of places you see for business in general, Boulder, Denver, Stamford—these are well known and growing, and women are actually having a share of that," said Rosen.

The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado area came in third with a high number of women-owned businesses, 3.22, per 100 people, and high female earnings relative to male, at 87%.

Santa Cruz-Watsonville and Santa Rosa, California, round out the top five metros on the list, both with high numbers of women-owned businesses per 100 residents.

And the big takeaways for female entrepreneurs considering starting a business where they live or making a move to a friendlier climate?

"Geography definitely matters. If you’re opening a business or thinking about moving somewhere and you’re considering business climate as something important it’s very clear that there’s some strong trends," said Rosen.

"The economic climate is something you should definitely consider. What’s the unemployment rate? What’s the percentage of small businesses opening up? You should start with 'Where is healthy, economically?' and from there filter down to 'Where are women seeing the most success?'"

I joined the staff of Forbes in 2013, covering leadership topics and researching the world’s wealthiest individuals for the Forbes 400 and World’s Billionaires lists before taking over the Careers beat. Previously, I worked as a stringer for the Chicago Daily Herald and Chic...